Old Romanian pluralized mass and abstract nouns

The analysis of a rich old Romanian corpus shows that the ‘pluralization’ of mass and abstract nouns is extremely frequent in old Romanian. The semantic effects of pluralization are similar for mass and abstract nouns, consisting in the creation of denotative and/or connotative semantic variants. Of the plural endings, –uri is specialized for the pluralization of mass nouns in Daco-Romanian. The evolution of the ending –uri illustrates the specific process by which a grammatical (plural) morpheme is converted into a lexical morpheme (the so-called ‘lexical plurals’). ‘Lexical plurals’ have isolated occurrences in other Romance languages, but they have not reached the spread and regularity they display in Romanian.


Introduction
Mass and abstract nouns have common semantic and morphosyntactic characteristics, which accounts for the fact that they are engaged in common phenomena (see 'pluralization' and its effects), as well as that they are analysed together (as in this article).
The objective of this article is to examine the phenomenon of pluralization of mass and abstract nouns, and its semantic and grammatical effects, on the basis of a rich corpus of old Romanian (1560-1780).

Characteristic features
The inherent [+mass] feature influences the grammatical behaviour of nouns, in the sense that mass nouns are distinguished from prototypical ones as far as their inflection (Nedelcu, 2013, p. 260-261) and morphosyntax are concerned (Pană Dindelegan, 2016b, p. 324-332).One inflectional feature of mass nouns is represented by their inclusion in the class of uncountable nouns, most mass nouns having no plural [singularia tantum nouns (1a-d)] and, only very rarely, having no singular form [pluralia tantum nouns (2a-b)].
( Of the plural endings, there is one which is specialized for the pluralization of mass nouns, attaching to both feminine and neuter mass nouns.This is the ending -uri, which, attached to the mass noun, ensures its pluralization and, implicitly, its change in meaning 2 .From a functional perspective, with such uses, the ending -uri is close to a lexical suffix, as it does not change only the inflectional features of the noun, but also its meaning.This phenomenon takes place exclusively in the dialects spoken north of the Danube 3 and can be traced back to the beginning of the 17 th century, having its first attestation in 1620 [Frâncu, 1982;(5a)]; later, examples multiply and diversify (5b-j).The following types of pluralization can be distinguished: (i) -uri is attached to certain roots of feminine mass nouns 4 , and its effect is either a new denotative meaning, "type, variety of a certain substance" (5a-j), or a pejorative connotative value (6).But while the first category is old in Romanian (attested at the beginning of the 17 th century), the second one has its first attestations in modern Romanian 5 .
(7) a. Similar phenomena of 'lexical plurals' have been noticed in other Romance varieties (Asturian, Leonese, Neapolitan), being interpreted in the same way or differently (see Ramat & Ricca, 2016, p. 61).However, we need to point out that this phenomenon has not gained anywhere else the extension and regularity it has in the Romanian variants spoken north of the Danube.
In conclusion, for Romanian, in the case of feminine nouns, -uri functions mostly with a lexical role, being connected to the roots of mass nouns7 , while, in the case of neuter nouns, the ending -uri (or the inflectional morpheme sequence -ur + -i8 ) functions mostly as a grammatical device, marking the plural (the type joc -jocuri 'game -games' , loc -locuri 'place -places' , lucru -lucruri 'thing -things' , tabloutablouri 'painting -paintings') and only in rare cases, it also functions as a lexical suffix, when attached to the roots of mass nouns (arginturi 'silverware' , metaluri 'metal objects' , vinuri 'types of wine').

Characteristic features
Just like mass nouns, abstract nouns are inflectionally characterized by the fact that they are uncountable and morphosyntactically by their preferential occurrence in argumental structures with a bare determiner.Both characteristics have been attested since old Romanian.

Pluralized abstract nouns (the type cinste 'honesty', miloste 'mercy'))
The richness of abstract formations of Romanian, in general, and of old Romanian, in particular, has already been noticed (fclrv; Pană Dindelegan, 2017), and it mainly represents the outcome of the rich inventory of abstract suffixes, many of them highly productive, and of the synonymy and competition among suffixes.
In standard modern Romanian, the pluralized forms of abstract nouns are less frequently used, as these nouns behave like singularia tantum, so that the situation of invariability under (9) only occurs for the singular (see the forms recommended by the doom 2 : cinstei 'honour.gen"dat', foamei 'hunger.gen"dat', foametei 'hunger.gen"dat', onoarei 'honour.gen"dat', setei 'thirst.gen"dat').Even when they are used in the plural, pluralization is associated with different concrete meanings and even with gender changes (see onoare f vs onor n -onoruri n 'honour.sg-honour.pl').

The pluralization of the collective noun zestre 'dowry'
This collective noun of Latin origin (< dextĕrae;Ciorănescu, 2003, p. 853) occurs in the law texts of the 17 th century with syncretic forms for both numbers [(13a) vs (13b)].Plural forms are the most frequent (13b-d); see the distribution of singular and plural forms in the table below.Distinguishing the singular from the plural is often done contextually, through the selection of a specialized article form (dzeastrele 'dowry.f.pl.def') or through adjectival agreement (altă dzeastre 'another.f.sg dowry' vs aceale dzeastre 'those.f.pl dowries').

Conclusions
-The phenomenon of pluralization of mass, abstract and collective nouns is extremely frequent in old Romanian.-The pluralization of mass and abstract nouns often triggers a change in meaning and leads, in the case of mass nouns, to their 'demassification' , and, in the case of abstract nouns, to 'de-abstractization' / 'concretization' .
-Daco-Romanian has developed a specialized ending, -uri, for the pluralization of mass nouns and, implicitly, for the change in meaning.-The evolution of -uri (from the plural of feminine nouns -the type mătăsuri 'silks' , verdețuri 'herbs' , and from the plural of neuter nouns -the types metaluri 'metals' , vinuri 'wines') shows a special process, that consists of converting a grammatical (plural) morpheme into a lexical one.-Simultaneously, the ending -uri becomes ambiguous, as it expresses, cumulatively, two values: a grammatical (plural) one and a lexical (derivational) one.